A new way of reading

More than 5000 years ago, Sumerians in Mesopotamia created cuneiform script. It was the first time humans used writing for something else than accounting. They were only able to write on limestone, then came papyrus, and finally paper. It was paramount to write text organised in pages, due to the physical support used for writing. Today, that’s not the case anymore. We have new powerful devices, featuring the most advanced touch screens. With so many more possibilities, can’t we create a more effective approach?

Read faster. Read smarter

With the help of a psychologist, we scanned the relevant scientific literature. Our goal was to find a new reading paradigm that would allow us to read smarter and faster. UpRead is the result of our efforts.

We use a technique called RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation). Scientists studied this approach since the ’50s, but only now we have technologies that can really enjoy it. Smartphones and smart watches have powerful yet small screens that work perfectly with RSVP. In many scientific studies, the technique proved as effective as traditional reading. Testers were able to read faster and with comparable comprehension with little or no training. With some training, it can bring incredible results.

Are you ready for the future of reading? We’re bringing UpRead to iOS only, supporting recent iPhone and iPad models. 

UpRead. Made with ❤️ By CrazyHorseApps

Import from anywhere

UpRead allows you to read what you want by importing it into the app, in a few taps and from anywhere. UpRead integrates with Safari, notes, mail and any other app that supports sharing. Our goal is to make you more efficient. The only way to achieve that is to create a professional and high quality product: UpRead is a pleasure to use.

Save to read later

UpRead will become the app to go for any reading situation. You can save articles to read later, see your progress and archive what is not relevant anymore. Everything is within UpRead. Everything is offline, always available.

Easy to configure

Reading is a subjective experience. We all have our own pace and style. Scientific evidence proves it without any doubt. That’s why UpRead allows you to configure every detail in the reading experience, like graphic style, reading speed and font size. You can also see the original article anytime. You are always in control.

Don’t miss it out! Go to the App Store and pre-order UpRead. It will automatically download to your device when we launch it, June 2019!

UpRead. Made with ❤️ By CrazyHorseApps

The release timeline

We are basing UpRead on strong scientific evidence but it is not (yet) perfect. We’re still working on polishing the app and making it as good as it can be. Our plan is to release the app on May 22.

UPDATE: We’re postponing the release of UpRead. We did our best to meet the original deadline but we failed to deliver. Sorry about that. We’ll do our best to make sure the app hits the App Store beginning of June! Bear with us!


UPDATE (June 10 2019): We’re releaseing UpRead! Go grab it from the app store!

 

Notes on the approach

We are aware of some limitations of RSVP, the approach to fast reading we use in UpRead. We’re already working to overcome them. Since this is uncharted territory, it may take time to solve every issue. If you have any suggestion, or you want to take part in the beta testing process, or really anything else, please contact us.

We must thank a lot the scientific community for their amazing work on exploring how reading works and the potential for fast reading. If you want to know more about it, here are some of the scientific articles we based UpRead on:

  1. Akyürek, E. G., & Hommel, B. (2006). Memory operations in rapid serial visual presentation. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 18(4), 520-536.
  2. Angele, B., & Rayner, K. (2013). Processing the in the parafovea: are articles skipped automatically? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 649–662.
  3. Balota, D. A. (2016). Speed reading: you can’t always get what you want, but can you sometimes get what you need? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17, 1-3.
  4. Benedetto, S., Carbone, A., Pedrotti, M., Le Fevre, K., Bey, L. A. Y., & Baccino, T. (2015). Rapid serial visual presentation in reading: The case of Spritz. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 352-358.
  5. Castelhano, M. S., & Muter, P. (2001). Optimizing the reading of electronic text using rapid serial visual presentation, Behaviour and Information Technology, 20, 237-247.
  6. Chen, H. C. (1986). Effects of reading span and textual coherence on rapid-sequential reading. Memory & Cognition, 14(3), 202-208.
  7. Crutch, S. J., Lehmann, M., Schott, J. M., Rabinovici, G. D., Rossor, M. N., Fox, N. C. (2012). Posterior cortical atrophy. Lancet Neurology, 11(2), 170-178.
  8. Forster, K. I. (1970). Visual perception of rapidly presented word sequences of varying complexity. Perception & Psychophysics, 8(4), 215-221.
  9. Gannon, E., He, J., Gao, X., & Chaparro, B. (2016). RSVP Reading on a smart watch. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2016 Annual Meeting, 1130-1134.
  10. Gilbert, L. C. (1959). Speed of processing visual stimuli and its relation to reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 50(1), 8-14.
  11. Lewis-Åkerman, E. (2017). Rapid Serial Visual Presentation: a qualitative study. Bachelor’s thesis. Technology and Society Computer Science. Malmo University.
  12. Masson, M. E. J. (1983). Conceptual processing of text during skimming and rapid sequential reading. Memory & Cognition, 11(3), 262-274.
  13. Potter, M. C. (1984). Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP): a method for studying language processing. In Kieras, D., & Just, M. (Eds.), New methods in reading comprehension research (pp. 91-118). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  14. Primativo, S., Spinelli, D., Zoccolotti, P., De Luca, M., & Martelli, M. (2016). Perceptual and cognitive factors imposing “speed limits” on reading rate: a study with the rapid serial visual presentation. PLoS One, 11(4).
  15. Rayner, K., Schotter, E., Masson, M. E., Potter, M., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help? Psychological science, 17(1), 4-34.
  16. Schotter, E. R., Angele, B., & Rayner, K. (2012). Parafoveal processing in reading. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 74, 5-35.
  17. Schotter, E. R., Tran, R., & Rayner, K. (2014). Don’t believe what you read (only once): comprehension is supported by regressions during reading. Psychological Science, 25, 1218-1226.
  18. Williamson, N. L., Muter, P., & Kruk, R. S. (1986). Computerized presentation of text for the visually handicapped. Advances in Psychology, 34, 115-125.
  19. Yong, K. X., Rajdev, K., Shakespeare, T. J., Leff, A. P., & Crutch, S. J. (2015). Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy. Neurology, 85(4), 339-348.